This white paper describes how modernizing aging application portfolios and transforming legacy systems can create business advantage.

1. APPLICATION MODERNIZATION
Transforming legacy systems to create business
advantage
In a digital marketplace that demands faster time to market, exceptional user
experience, and lower cost of operation, the pressure to modernize aging
application portfolios keeps growing.
Given the age, size, and complexity of existing business-critical applications,
modernization can be a daunting prospect. As the examples in this paper show,
however, there are multiple and incremental ways to extend the life of valuable
business logic, deploy new functionality, and transform user experience—while
reducing cost, risk, and complexity going forward.
WHITE PAPER

2. DIGITAL BUSINESS DRIVERS
BARCLAYCARD INVENTS A
Today’s digital marketplace rewards innovation and superior customer experience.
NEW BUSINESS MODEL To compete, enterprises need to be able to focus more on creating business
Barclaycard, the global financial value—and less on underlying technology.
institution, had a vision for the
launch of its new U.S. credit card. Just as virtualization and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) capabilities enable
They would build customer dramatic business agility and cost advantages, Cloud Application Platform
awareness and loyalty by changing technologies and moves toward a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model are
the cardholder-card provider transforming the way applications are developed and deployed. New application
relationship. architectures make it much easier for companies to:
Barclaycard had worked with EMC • Accelerate time to market
financial services industry
consultants, user experience • Reduce the cost, effort, and risk of developing, deploying, changing, and
designers, and application developers maintaining applications
on UK and U.S. banking websites and
• Improve user experience
on iPad, iPhone, and Android service
applications. They again selected • Deploy on Web and Mobile platforms
EMC to help with their launch
• Enable predictive analytics and real-time insight
strategy—to use social media and
create a community of cardholders • Embed security and trust
engaged in co-developing the card
offering they wanted. • Shift IT spend and skilled resources from maintenance to innovation
EMC researched target segments, • Improve asset utilization
interviewing people about their
Few organizations, however, are in a position to take a greenfield approach to
interactions with financial
capitalize on this opportunity. Most must look at incremental, ROI-driven paths to
institutions, experience with social
modernization across the landscape of applications, platforms, skillsets, and
media, and reactions to initial launch
concepts. In addition to face-to-face processes in use today.
focus groups, EMC set up an online
innovation lab for 2,000 participants
to provide feedback. After design
prototypes were created, refined, and
validated through iterative user
testing, EMC designed the digital
experience, leveraging advanced
social and game-ification techniques,
in a representation layer on the
Lithium social platform.
The launch garnered significant news
coverage in the blogosphere, as well
as in business, financial services, and
technology publications. Customers
collaborated on setting policies and
rates and opted for member profit-
sharing, based on a transparent
monthly reporting of card P&L, over a
Figure 1. Focus on business value
traditional rewards or cash-back
program. Forrester Research New platform-as-a-service models enable greater automation and efficiency by
awarded the site its Voice of the putting more IT operational workloads into the platform itself, enabling application
Customer Award. The new card developers to focus more on creating and delivering business value—and less on
outperforms peers and the underlying application infrastructure.
cardholder community continues to
actively participate in how the card
evolves.

3. TECHNICAL DEBT
It’s not unusual for enterprises today to rely on hundreds or even thousands of
applications, whether on decades-old mainframes or running on heterogeneous
server architectures in multiple data centers.
While these applications enable the business, they also represent a kind of
“technical debt” that can hold an organization back from achieving new objectives.
For example:
• Traditional software development lifecycles are slow and delay time to
market
• Legacy software licenses, infrastructure, and maintenance consume time,
money, and resources that could be invested more strategically
• Critical business logic and data locked in proprietary platforms are difficult
to access and use in new ways, to meet new needs
• Data models established years ago often constrain new business
directions and do not easily support web, mobile, or Big Data scenarios
• Large, complex, and monolithic applications are difficult, and even risky,
to modify—requiring IT involvement for even minor changes and multiple
test and QA cycles
• Technical skillsets for aging platforms become increasingly difficult to find
as programmers and database administrators retire
• As the market share for older application platforms shrinks, so do
investments in new product development and the availability of
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software and third-party tools and
services
• End users, developers, and business units, frustrated by corporate IT
solutions and turnaround times, are turning to consumer technologies and
public cloud services, creating a “shadow IT” that adds another layer of
cost, risk, and complexity
MOVING FORWARD
Like any large debt that’s accrued over many years, getting out from under the
burden of legacy applications can seem overwhelming. While many recognize that
existing application architectures are unsustainable, making any changes to critical
applications can seem fraught with risk for both application owners and IT. A sense
of paralysis and a tendency toward procrastination are understandable, but as with
any debt, the longer action is delayed—the larger the problem becomes.
The good news is there are many ways to move forward in rationalizing and
modernizing the applications that the business depends on today, to speed
innovation, and significantly reduce the burden of technical debt going forward.
What’s more, proven application modernization strategies, methodologies, and
tools can greatly reduce the uncertainty, risk, and effort associated with
transforming applications.

4. WHERE TO START: PORTFOLIO RATIONALIZATION
While specific application modernization efforts are often driven by immediate
business requirements, organizations that undertake a holistic and objective
analysis of their entire portfolio can better prioritize and optimize modernization
efforts.
Portfolio rationalization helps identify:
• Legacy applications with the greatest risks/costs
• Transformation opportunities with the highest payback potential
• Changes that can be made relatively quickly and easily to reduce overall
cost and complexity
Because applications are typically widely used across an organization and deeply
ingrained into business processes, gaining a clear and accurate understanding of
what exists can be difficult. Proven application portfolio rationalization
methodologies that leverage automated tools can reduce the time and effort it
takes to identify and categorize hundreds of applications and identify those that
are vital to future success.
Application assessments must go beyond technical description. Only by evaluating
applications within the context of enterprise objectives and business, technical, and
user requirements, can useful consolidation models be built and recommendations
made for the disposition for each application. Armed with this information,
organizations can make informed decisions about whether an application should
be:
• Retired (archived or decommissioned)
• Consolidated with other overlapping/redundant applications
• Replaced by off-the-shelf software
• Re-platformed, to cut infrastructure costs, minimize technological
diversity, or enable virtualization potential
• Re-architected, to support new data models, separate front-end functions
from back-end processing, improve processing performance, etc.
• Re-written, to add new functionality or take advantage of new cloud
development and deployment platforms
REDUCE UNCERTAINTY WITH APPLICATION INSIGHT
As part of the modernization planning process, a data-driven analysis of existing
application code can provide helpful insight that reduces uncertainty and improves
project planning and predictability.
Large, decades-old mainframe applications, especially, can be particularly daunting
and opaque in terms of determining the time, cost, and risk of modernization. In
many instances, although originally built for a specific business purpose, they have
been expanded to meet changing needs in the interim and may have grown to be
tens of millions of lines of code.

5. Analysis of application source code, using specialized tools, algorithms, and
statistical analysis, can provide valuable insight by decomposing how code is
clustered, what functional tasks are performed, and how much is duplicated or
cloned. In context of a rewrite initiative, findings frequently show that what
actually needs to be rewritten is significantly less than first thought. For example,
it’s not unusual for cloned or duplicate code to account for 30 percent of a
mainframe program. Analysis can also show how older, monolithic applications can
be functionally decomposed, replacing additional large portions of code that
perform specific tasks with modern architecture frameworks or tools, such as
report writers.
Figure 2. All code has a story to tell
An EMC Insight Assessment can tackle even the largest legacy application within a
few weeks. The assessment combines analysis of existing code and interviews with
application experts to enable more informed decision-making, accurate scoping,
and realistic planning for modernization. Application visualizations help identify
opportunities for improvement and foster meaningful communication among
business and IT stakeholders.
REWRITE—OR CONVERT?
Organizations that want to extend the life of valuable business logic and data
locked in proprietary mainframe languages and non-relational databases should
consider the option of converting, rather than re-writing, applications.
Automated application conversion tools, combined with experienced code analysis,
conversion planning, and technical architecture and database expertise, can
convert code written in obsolete languages into industry-standard COBOL and
move data from old, flat files into fully relational SQL databases, running on either
a mainframe or x86 platform.

6. Conversion tools and methodologies that produce COBOL code—as opposed to
‘black box’ conversion solutions—enable development teams to continue to “own
BENEFITS FIRM the code” and to work with and enhance the application, using the language they
PRESCRIBES VIRTUAL already understand.
DATA FABRIC TO SAVE Conversion has the advantage of avoiding ‘scope creep’ and other risks associated
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS with complete application rewrites. Testing, for example, remains straightforward—
A large prescription benefits with the old application providing the baseline for new code performance and
management firm needed to be functionality. End-user screens and processes can be migrated without change,
able to respond quickly to new leaving business users unaffected by the platform modernization.
market conditions, regulations,
In addition to dramatically reducing hardware maintenance and software licensing
and patient needs. But making
changes to its decades-old, 25- costs, conversion extends the life of critical applications. Converted applications
million-line COBOL application gain access to new platform functionality, a larger pool of skilled developer
was slow—and costly. What’s resources, and more third-party solutions than aging platforms with rapidly
more, with the mainframe shrinking market share can offer.
struggling to meet peak load
requirements, purchasing more
MIPS seemed to be the only
remedy. LEAP AHEAD WITH MODERN FRAMEWORKS AND FABRICS
Whether updating an existing application or building a new one, enterprises can
Instead, a team of EMC and
use modern application development frameworks to break free from legacy
VMware consultants worked with
constraints and cut the cost, time, and effort of delivering innovative digital
the firm to develop a solution
using VMware vFabric GemFire to business solutions.
migrate data processing from the The open source Spring™ Framework, for example, has proven so productive that
mainframe to a low-cost x86- it is used by more than half of today’s Java developers. VMware vFabric™
based data fabric. Batch and
application middleware provides an established runtime platform for Spring-
transaction processing continue
developed applications on virtual infrastructure, enabling developers to focus on
to run on the mainframe. When
creating business logic. Instead of “recreating the wheel” of runtime functions,
the COBOL program calls for
data, the call is intercepted and such as data management or asynchronous messaging for each application,
diverted to the GemFire Data developers can rely on the vFabric middleware to abstract and deliver these
Fabric and the data is returned functions as services in a distributed fabric running in the data center or in the
transparently to the application. cloud. In addition to improved availability, security, and manageability, virtual
resources can be automatically and dynamically provisioned to match changing
The solution improves mainframe
application workloads—for example, to handle spikes in transactions or traffic or
processing performance,
eliminating the need to purchase support unpredictable social media activity.
more MIPS. It also provides a In addition to developing new applications, frameworks and fabrics can be used to
path for future modernization. By offload, speed up and improve the function of existing applications. For example,
separating the data from the
new data models to support Big Data analytics or to incorporate other data types
mainframe application and
can be delivered using vFabric GemFire or SQLFire data fabric running on a virtual
serving it from a next-
x86 platform, while keeping much of the transaction processing logic on the
generation, in-memory data
fabric, the application gains very mainframe or other legacy platform. Alternatively, front-end end-user functions
high throughput and no single can be separated from back-end systems and delivered from the cloud application
point of failure, and the company platform layer for faster, easier updates and simplified deployment on web and
reduces its dependence on the mobility channels.
mainframe platform moving
forward. The firm expects to save
millions of dollars from the
solution over the next five years
through cost-avoidance and
faster, simpler application change
processes.

7. PRIORITIZE USER EXPERIENCE
BROKER GAINS NEXT- Traditional software development starts with functional and technical
requirements gathering. But software is no longer just a means to better product
GENERATION TRADE
and business efficiencies. Today, software is the product—it’s where business
PROCESSING APPLICATION
gets done.
A global agency broker and clearing
firm had developed its trading system Digital business models change the way people work and customers buy. That’s
on multiple core systems over time. why organizations and developers should preface application development and
The system could not handle spikes in modernization projects with serious consideration about how an application is
trade volume. The frequency of trade going to be used. By whom? On what platforms and devices? Where, when, and
breaks and time-to resolve were high. why?
The complexity of the solution required
IT intervention for any change. User experience is more than an attractive graphical interface. It’s a personal,
Provisioning new clients or adding new powerful, first-hand interaction that forms an impression and relationship with a
products or exchanges took longer business. It can demonstrate a unique understanding of a customer’s needs,
than the business could afford. And distinguish a product in a crowded marketplace, deliver new kinds of services,
because trades weren’t being boost productivity and customer satisfaction, and establish a competitive lead.
replicated across systems, there was
no timely visibility into volume or Developing and delivering a superior experience starts with data-driven research.
workflow. It requires iterative feedback and testing with real users, and technical
execution, as well as vision, inspiration, and creativity. It’s also an ongoing
EMC consultants worked with
process. Good user experience solutions are designed to evolve, to capture
stakeholders to design a streamlined
usage data and feedback, and incorporate innovation and improvement over
trade flow business process and build a
time.
distributed staged event-driven
architecture (SEDA) for highly Thoughtful service-oriented application development and deployment
concurrent events on virtualized x86 architectures can help organizations to meet the challenge of user experience
infrastructure. EMC application design that evolves over time. By separating the user experience presentation
developers used Agile development
and reference layers from underlying infrastructure and back-end systems,
techniques and the Spring Framework
changes to the platform, branding, or the products themselves can be made
to develop a solution that leveraged
quickly and easily without altering underlying business systems.
VMware vFabric middleware, including:
tc Server for application server
services, GemFire for data services,
RabbitMQ for asynchronous
MODERNIZE THE SOFTWARE LIFECYCLE, TOO
messaging, and Hyperic for enterprise
It’s not only legacy applications that hold organizations back. Inefficient and
monitoring. EMC managed all aspects
outdated software development lifecycle (SDLC) processes add unnecessary risk,
of the program—from initial data
analysis and trade flow modeling to time, and cost—from initial design and development to testing and release and to
requirements definition, process re- production, ongoing maintenance, and change management.
engineering, sprint development
It’s not unusual for different teams in different organizations to be responsible
cycles, integration, testing, and global
for different aspects of the software lifecycle, be measured differently, and be
production rollout. EMC also prepared
working in relative isolation with different tools and processes.
and trained in-house staff to take over
rapid application development and Divisions can persist even as organizations move from traditional infrastructure
management of the virtual platform. to a virtualized IaaS model. But the time-to-market and cost advantages enabled
The new solution reduces dependence by PaaS service-oriented cloud application platforms lead to developers,
on IT. It scales dynamically by a factor operations, and application owners collaborating in new ways.
of 10+. Trade breaks occur less and
By taking a more integrated “DevOps” approach to the software lifecycle,
are resolved faster. Onboarding new
organizations can make the people, process, and technology changes required to
customers, products, or exchanges
be able to:
takes weeks, not months. Role-based
dashboards provide real-time, end-to- • Break down silos to create an integrated team
end visibility into all trades.
• Rationalize, integrate, and automate manual processes

8. • Apply Agile principles such as sprints, continuous integration, and
continuous deployment across the SDLC
SHOPPING GETS BETTER,
• Simplify quality assurance by testing sooner and more frequently and
FASTER, ACROSS ALL
automating testing for integration and function
CHANNELS
• Accelerate dev/test and release management by creating standard
A national department store wanted
virtual runtime templates and automating provisioning
to build on its in-store success and
drive up channel revenues with a • Enable collaborative agile team dev/test environments to be available in
better, more consistent shopping hours, not weeks, and tools to be configured in minutes, not days
experience across the web, mobile
devices, in-store kiosks, and third-
party applications and sites.
START NOW
EMC retail consultants and solution Just as cloud has revolutionized data center operations to deliver low-cost virtual
architects worked with the company infrastructure on demand, cloud is changing the way applications are built,
to develop a multi-channel deployed, and managed in production. Service-oriented cloud application
optimization strategy, design a platforms and powerful frameworks and middleware are freeing organizations to
service-oriented solution, and focus on the business logic that brings their unique value to market, and deliver
develop it using the open source it faster than ever before.
Spring Framework. EMC re-
Rationalizing application portfolios and modernizing critical applications to be
architected the company’s
able to benefit from new data models and cloud application paradigms can
eCommerce application to decouple
sometimes seem daunting. But the best way to start is to begin. EMC application
the front-end presentation from
modernization consultants can help with an objective assessment of where you
back-end business logic and the
stand today, what’s possible, and how you can move forward to achieve your
underlying eCommerce engine. They
objectives.
developed the new channel
presentation service layer and
defined best practices to enable
internal staff to take over ongoing
development, maintenance, and
support.
The solution expands the retailer’s
channel presence, brings new
features to shoppers faster, helps
maintain brand consistency across
channels, and provides partners with
an open API that lets them build on
the same baseline set of services that
the in-house channels use, without
having to worry about complex
eCommerce technology. The solution
makes it easier to implement new
functions, such as an intelligent 360-
degree view of customer purchases
and spending patterns. It enables
changes in channel presentation
without affecting back-end systems,
and changes to back-end functions
and platforms without affecting
channel presentation.

9. EMC GLOBAL SERVICES DELIVERS RESULTS
ACCELERATING TEST AND EMC Global Services provides the strategic guidance and technology expertise
RELEASE organizations need to address their business and information infrastructure
The Internet Services division of a challenges and derive the maximum value from their information assets and
global banking and financial services investments. We are committed to exceptional total customer experience
institution employs thousands of through service excellence. Our 15,000+ professional and support service
programmers to develop and maintain experts worldwide, plus a global network of alliances and partners, leverage
web applications for its private, proven methodologies, industry best practices, and experience and knowledge
commercial, and retail banking derived from EMC’s information-centric heritage to address the full spectrum of
customers. The bank’s software
customer needs across the information lifecycle: strategize, advise, architect,
development life cycle (SDLC)
implement, manage, and support.
standards require that each application
pass through seven different testing
environments on its journey from initial
development to release to production.
The process required the manual
creation and submission of an image
for each application version as it
progressed from one testing phase to
the next. The slow and complex
process added months to the release
process and hindered both developer
productivity and business agility.
EMC DevOps consultants worked with
stakeholders to simplify and automate
the process by leveraging cloud-based
virtualization and collaboration. They
developed an automated private cloud
application development environment
with virtual templates of all of the
SDLC testing environments, using
VMware vCloud Director to orchestrate
the process.
Now, developers can select any
template from a single portal with a
single click, and vCloud Director
automatically provisions the virtual
system resources needed to run that
series of tests in the cloud. Test
environments are provisioned in
minutes instead of weeks. Developers
maintain better control of their
applications and are more productive.
Tested, quality-assured applications
are released to production months
faster, improving time to market and
business agility.

10. CONTACT US
To learn more about how EMC
products, services, and solutions can
help solve your business and IT
challenges, contact your local
representative or authorized
reseller—or visit us at
www.EMC.com.
EMC2, EMC, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the
United States and other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their
respective owners. © Copyright 2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA.
3/13 White Paper H11608
EMC believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The
www.EMC.com information is subject to change without notice.